David Pocock is WA's Young Australian of the Year

David Pocock's off-field work with African-based charities, community work in Perth and his strong value system won him the Western Australian Young Australian of the Year award on the weekend.

And Pocock has squeezed a lot into his 23 years.

His outlook on life has been sculpted by his upbringing on a farm in Zimbabwe and the subsequent upheaval when Mugabe regime violence forced his family to flee to Australia when he was 14-years-old.

Shortly after settling into Australia his talent on the rugby field was spotted and Pocock was soon captaining the Australian Rugby's Under-20s Team.

The Wallabies are lucky to have him because as a young rugby fan growing up in Zimbabwe his allegiance was leading him in a different direction.

"I loved the Springboks. I remember at the 1999 World Cup where Steve Larkham kicked a field goal to beat the Springboks in the semi-final, I went back to my room and had a bit of a cry."

"So things have definitely changed a bit since then," the Wallaby flanker said.

Moving to Perth to play for the Western Force also led him to his girlfriend and now wife Emma Palandri.

After he discovered her passion for women's studies, Pocock admits to secretly reading feminist texts to help woo her in the early days.

Now they're both passionate about charity work and Pocock dedicates much of his energy to his own charity 'Eightytwenty Vision', which he and close friend Luke O'Keefe established in 2009.

The charity provides initiatives for people in rural Zimbabwe to break the cycle of poverty with small self-help projects.

It also focuses on helping promote maternity care for expecting mothers in the third world country.

"In most developing countries maternal health is at the bottom of the priority list when it comes to government funding so that's one area we're really trying to improve."

The difference is already evident with a hospital that usually has 18 births in a year is now handling the same number of births every month.

ABC's Russell Woolf spoke to David Pocock about the 2010 Rugby World Cup, his book 'Openside: My Journey to the Rugby World Cup' and why he devotes so much of his time and money to charity. The full interview is attached.

Other winners at the WA Australian of the Year awards include:

Western Australia's Australian of the Year 2012 - Professor Donna CrossWestern Australia's Senior Australian of the Year 2012 - George Jones AMWestern Australia's Local Hero 2012 - Helen Fitzroy